Dehorning device



July 14, 1953 A. L. oTls 2,645,011

DEHORNING DEVICE `Filed April 28, 1952 5 sheets-sheet 1 JW l W IN V ENTOR.

July 14, 1953 A. L ons 2,645,011

DEHORNING DEVICE Filed April 28, 1952 3 Sheets-Sheet 2 INVENTOIL BY Madlg# July 14, 1953 A. l. orls 2,645,011

DEHORNING DEVICE Filed April 28, 1952 3 Sheets-Sheet 3 INVENTOR.

Patented july 14, 1,915.3YL

UNITED srAres PATENT yoI-FIci-z j QDEHORNING DEVICE` Aliant. ons,whiira, mana Application April 28, 1952, Serial No. 284,841V

fc1aims. 01. sii- 161) device for use in removing the horns of cattle.

It is common practice to remove the horns fromcattle in order to preventthem from damaging* each other when they are crowded together and toavoid damage to those whowork among the cattle. Various methods andVmeans have been provided for this purpose but none of them have receiveduniversal popularity. Usually the horns are removed when the cattle areyearlings, although they may be removed at any age. The greatestdrawback to the removal isthe injury done to the animal and theresulting loss of weight and growth which occurs because of removing thehorns. One of the reasons for the loss is due to the shock andtheexcitement incident to taking the horns off by the slow method ofsawing them oif by hand. There are pincer types of dehorning deviceswhich are faster but they do crush the horn in many cases and seem tocause a more lasting damage than the sawing. Sawing is an ideal way ofremoving the horns because the horn is a hard material that sawsreadily. It is the purpose of my invention therefore to provide adehorning device which uses a power driven saw and which is soconstructed that it can be quickly applied' to the animal so that theactual sawing operation is very quickly accomplished with a minimizingof the jshock to the animal.

The nature and advantages of my invention will appear more fully fromthe following description and the accompanying drawings which illustratea preferred form of the invention. It should be understood, however,that thedrawings and description are illustrative only and are notintended to Vlimit the invention except insofar as it is limited by theclaims. f y In the drawings: Figure 1 is a plan view of a dehorningdevice embodying my invention; n n p n Figure 2 is a view like Figure 1,showing the parts in a changed position; y

Figure 3 is a view in side elevation of the device; e

Figure 4 is a bottom plan view of the device; Figure 5 is a sectionalview taken on the line 5-5 of Figure 1;

Figure 6 is a fragmentary sectional view taken on the line 6 6 of Figure3; and

Figure 7 is a fragmentary sectional view taken substantially on the linel-l of Figure 5.-

Referring now in detail to the` drawings, my dehorning device comprisesa circular saw III having a hook member I I adapted to hook around ahorn and pull it into engagement withthe saw. The saw is secured onA anarbor I2. which-is mounted on one end of a flexible shaft I3- .The

flexible shaft I3 has a bearing member I4 onthe end thereof which ismounted between two halves I5 and I6 of a split sleeve. The flexibleshaftunit I3 and its bearing member Mwith thearbor I2 can be purchasedas a standard piece of equipment, so the details thereof are not shownin this application. The split sleeve portion I5 is securedl to asupporting and guide member Il by a ange I8 provided on the portion I5.,The otherhalf I6 of the split sleeve is bolted to the half I5 by boltsVI9. The member I1 hasV a hand grip 20 secured thereon and is divided(-seeFigure '7) to provide two arms 22 and 23 which receive the shaft I3between. them.k Screws 24 secure the flange I8 to the member II.` Thesescrews also secure a shallow cup-shaped guard25 tothe member Il. themember Il extends through it. It is also cut away on the side facing thehook II as indicated at 21 and 28 to allow the saw to engage ahornpressed toward it by the hook I I. 'f' The hook II is carried by asliding bar 3i! which has its side edges 3I and 32 Vturned over themember Il to make sliding engagement with fthe member Il and guide thehook I I, in its'movements toward and away from the saw. The bar 30 iscut away at 33 to clear the arbor I2- and to leave a space betweenthey-hook carrying arm 30a and the opposite' arm slib oftheY` bar 3|)-vdirectly over the saw. base plate 35 thereon which overliesthe flanges Ahandgrip 34 hasa 3| and 32 of themember3, ThisV base plate has its sideedges bent around the member 30 as shown at 36r and Sland thesesideedges are secured to the bar 30 by screws 38. Two'springs 39 and 40are secured to the base plate 35 by hooks 4I and 42 and extendfcrwardly'to -secure members 43 that are carried bythe'split vsleeve nhalf I5. The springs 39A and 4U are. under tension J so that normallythey force the'ba'r 3D Vand the hook II to the leftas shown in Figure lso as to bring the plate 35 against the` rear y'edge of rthe guard 25and to hold the hook I I spaced from the saw I0 the maximum distancepermissible.`

The hook II is provided with a curved'toothecl horn engagingportion I Iathat is offset downfwardly so as to lie just below the plane of4 the lsaw I0. The flange 25a of the guard 25 extends The guard 25 is'aperturedat 26 so that from any suitable source of power such as an electricmotor or an internal combustion engine. The device itself is held in thehands by means of the hand grips 20 and 24 and a hand grip 44 which isrigidly attached to the member l5. I have shown the device in thedrawings with a switch 45 attached to the hand grip 44 and controlconductors 48 leading from the switch 45 so that the operator can stopand start the saw by manipulation of the switch lever 4l. The conductors46 may be carried to the motor by attaching them to the sheath I3a ofthe exible shaft I3. Where the device is operated by an internalcombustion engine. a suitable control for the engine may be substitutedfor the switch 45.

In operation the cattle are usually placed in a chute and their headsare clamped against movement. The operator removes the horns by hookingthe hook Il around the horn and then squeezing the hand grips 20 and 34toward each other with one hand while he holds the device with the otherhand on the hand grip 44, As the hand grips 2l) and 34 are broughttogether, the hook l I is forced toward the saw l0 to cause the saw tocut the horn. The saw IS is rotated at high speed and only a few secondsare required. to remove the horn. As soon as one horn is removed, theoperator releases the grip and the springs 39 and 40 retract the hook lI so that the other horn can be engaged and sawed off. I have found thatwith this device the dehorning is accomplished so quickly that theanimal has little time in which to get excited. The horn is cut offcleanly and my experience has been that the cattle bleed very littlefrom the sawing and that they will usually go about their` feeding withpractically no apparent discomfort. In over a hundred of the dehorning,only one interruption of the animals feeding was noticed and thisapparently was due to the fact that the animal was overheated in gettingit to the chute.

It is believed that the nature and advantages of my invention will beclear from the foregoing description.

Having thus described my invention, I claim: 1

1. A dehorning device comprising a circular saw, a shaft carrying thesaw, a bearing mounting the shaft, a clamp for said bearing, a guardcarried by the clamp and overlying the major portion of the saw, a guideplate attached to the clamp and extending away from the clamp in adirection parallel to the saw, a hand grip on said plate spaced from theclamp, a horn hook spaced from the saw in a direction opposite to thedirection in which the guide plate extends, supporting means for thehorn hook slidably mounted on the guide plate, a second hand gripmounted on said supporting means between the clamp and the hand grip onthe guide plate, and spring means urging the second hand grip toward theclamp.

2. A -dehorning device comprising a circular saw, a shaft carrying thesaw, a bearing mounting the shaft, a clamp for said bearing, a guardcarried by' the clamp and overlying the major portion of the saw, aguide plate attached to the clamp and extending away from the clamp in adirection parallel to the saw, a hand grip on said plate spaced from theclamp, a horn hook spaced from the saw in a direction opposite to thedirection in which the guide plate extends, supporting means for thehorn hook slidably mounted on the guide plate supporting the hook formovement toward and away from the saw, the hook having a toothed ilangeparallel to the saw but offset with respect to the plane of the saw tooverlap with the saw when the hook is moved into juxtaposition to thesaw, a second hand grip mounted on said supporting means between theclamp and the hand grip on the guide plate, and spring means urging thesecond hand grip toward the clamp.

3. A dehorning device comprising a circular saw, a shaft carrying thesaw, a bearing mounting the shaft, a clamp for said bearing, a guardcarried by the clamp and overlying the major portion of the saw, a guideplate attached to the clamp and extending away from the clamp in adirection parallel to the saw, a hand grip on said plate spaced from theclamp, a horn hook spaced from the saw in a direction opposite to thedirection in which the guide plate extends, supporting means for thehorn hook slidably mounted on the guide plate supporting the hook formovement toward and awa-y from the saw, the hook having a toothed flangeparallel to the saw but offset with respect to the plane of the saw tooverlap with the saw when the hook is moved into juxtaposition to thesaw, a second hand grip mounted on said supporting means between theclamp and the hand grip on the guide plate and including means limitingthe movement of the horn hook toward and away from the saw, and springmeans urging the second hand grip toward the clamp,

4. A dehorning device comprising a circular saw, a shaft carrying thesaw, a bearing mounting the shaft, a clamp for said bearing, a guardcarried by the clamp and overlying the major portion of the saw, saidguard including a flange extending down to the level of the saw, a guideplate attached to the clamp and extending away from the clamp in adirection parallel to the saw, a hand grip on said plate spaced from theclamp, a horn hook spaced from the saw in a direction opposite to thedirection in which the guide plate extends, supporting means for thehorn hool: slidably mounted on the guide plate, a second hand gripmounted on said supporting means between Athe clamp and the hand grip onthe guide plate, and spring means urging the second hand grip toward theclamp.

5. A dehorning device comprising a circular saw, a drive shaft carryingthe saw, a support for said shaft having a laterally projecting handlethereon, a flanged saw guard on said support, a horn hook aligned withthe saw and spaced from the saw, the guard being cut away adjacent tothe horn hook to admit a horn held by the hook to the saw, meansslidably mounting the horn hook on said support for. movement toward andaway from the saw, spring means urging the horn hook away from the sawand a pair of hand grips, one secured to the support and the otherconnected to the horn hook for pulling the hook toward the saw.

ALLAN L. OTIS.

No references cited.

